Air travel has become one of the most preferred modes of transportation when traveling over great distances. Modern jet aircraft are well equipped for sustained air travel at high speeds, enabling them to travel long distances in fairly short periods of time. Since jets and other aircraft can carry only a limited quantity of fuel, one of the major factors in limiting the distance over which aircraft can fly is the necessity for refueling. While in-flight refueling is possible today with some types of aircraft, most refueling is performed on the ground. These refueling stops prolong travel time. It is therefore desirable to increase the amount of fuel that can be stored on the aircraft, preferably with no or only minimal alterations to the existing aircraft structure.
It is known that the performance of reciprocating engines utilizing a fuel/air combustion mixture is improved with the introduction of cooled air. This is due to the increased density of the air, which results in higher oxygen availability for combustion. The cooled air also prevents premature combustion during the compression of the combustion mixture. Cooling of fuel for these engines utilizing existing air-conditioning equipment is also known and is used to reduce fuel vapors that may create vapor locks in fuel lines or to reduce lost fuel to the atmosphere as it evaporates from the fuel tank. The prior art also teaches the use of fuel cooled by means of an air conditioning system to cool the air introduced into the engine, and to retard vaporization of the fuel during compression to thus improve engine efficiency.